Page:Blanchard on L. E. L.pdf/8

8 church of Tedstone Delamere, near Bromyard, Herefordshire. The inscription runs thus:—"The Rev. John Landon, rector of Nursted and Ilsted, in Kent, died June 3d, 1777, aged 77. His religious principles and literary abilities were evident from what he did and wrote in vindication of the religion he professed, to the utter confutation of all dissenters." Of the writings of this faithful servant of the church we know nothing whatever; but as the first of the Landons whose "literary abilities" were signalised, or at all events, of whose exercise of them any record remains, his name must be here held worthy of honoring remembrance. The tablet was probably erected by his son, the Rev. John Landon, who had been presented, upwards of thirty years before (in 1749), to the rectory of Tedstone Delamere, and who held that living, to his own honor and the advantage of his parishioners, until 1782. And it may be mentioned that a green and flourishing token of the age and respectability of this family, is still visible in the church above referred to; for there, we believe to this day, is to be seen, round the tomb of one of the Landons, a fresh and luxuriant growth of hazels, thriving within the walls of the old edifice. Severe injuries, occasioned by a fall from his horse, rendered the latter years of the rector of Tedstone painful to himself, and perhaps less profitable to his family than they might otherwise have been; for about the period of his death (the living being his own), the advowson, together with Tedstone-court and estate, was sold, and a family consisting of eight children were left with very little but their own exertions and a respectable name, to depend upon for their advancement in the world.